“If you want something to stand out, the best way to do so is to light it up like a Christmas tree.” Creators Ollie Hanton, Michael Wessely, Stefanie Mueller, Mike Fraser, and Anne Roudaut have taken this idea to heart and crafted a method to add light on any surface using a unique electroluminescent coating.…

Today I’m looking at a 3D printer I had not seen before, the Incus Hammer Lab35. Incus Background Incus is a spin off of Austria-based Lithoz, who have done very well with their line of ceramic 3D printers. Now it seems they’ve leveraged their expertise to produce a metal 3D printer that is capable of…

Already bored of his Formula 1 wheel-equipped hoverboard and walking bicycle, YouTube creator The Q’s newest vehicular project is a monowheel made entirely out of wood. I’ll be honest… I want to build one. In his latest video, he shows us just how he managed to create a driveable wheel which can hold a single…

Even if you don’t have the best poker face, you know there’s a lot of fun to be had with playing cards. You can use them as bookmarks, fling them into open hats, or with your card-flicking accuracy, pelt your friends with a ninja-flurry of hearts, spades, and clubs. While DIY YouTuber BLACKHAND’s new card…

Researchers at UC Davis have developed an unusual new form of 3D printing that uses Droplet-Based Multiphase Emulsion. One of the big challenges in 3D printing is the inability to handle multiple materials. Typical 3D printers of today can 3D print a single material at a time, with certain more advanced models being able to…

Here’s a question for all us maker types. “Is it possible to both cut and sand a piece of material simultaneously using a common table saw?” Having pondered the question himself, John Heisz on his Youtube channel I Build It could not hold back his curiosity any longer! He set out to give us all…

A new online service has emerged that hopes to guide 3D printer operators to better printing parameters: 3DOptimizer. FabControl SIA, the producers of 3DOptimizer, seems to be a spinoff from well-known 3D printer manufacturer Mass Portal. Their claim to fame was being able to achieve 3D prints of astonishing quality, so there’s definitely skill present.…

We’ve all been there before: your package arrives in the mail and you have nothing to open it with. It’s times like these we reach for the closest sharp object in the vicinity: a pair of scissors, a letter opener, an untrimmed fingernail. In my case? You guessed it. A Swiss Army knife. However, the…

Unlike skateboarding, rollerblading, or cycling, the art of surfing relies heavily on… ya know, water, and waves in the water. No waves = no surf. But what if you didn’t need to wait for the high tide to kick in? What if you could just ride your board whenever you wanted to? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY8B8-NeQfY The Waterwolf…

Woodturning wood, metal, and plastics are interesting and amazing in and of itself. From bowls in bowls to a cherry burl egg, the possibilities are endless. But who would have thought of woodturning a stack of colored straws into a vase? Well, the Wood Workshop is who. And they captured the entire, fascinating process that…

Wood carving is, in and of itself, an art form. It takes a lot of time and effort to turn a chunk of wood into something functional, let alone beautiful. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder but I think we can all agree this accurate scale wood carving of a Toyota…

Next to Iron Man’s repulsors and Spider-Man’s web shooters, the most iconic piece of equipment in the Marvel universe has to be Wolverine’s adamantium claws. More a part of his anatomy than actual weapons, these claws (three on each hand) have varying origins. In some forms of media, Wolverine has adamantium claws grafted onto his…

Rise up from that pile of 45x45mm high-precision extruded aluminum for a moment and pay attention. Vention has announced a $38M CAD ($28.1M USD) series-B financing round to spread its cloud-based machine-building bliss far and wide. This brings their funding total to $58.5M CAD ($43.4 USD) since their first Seed Round in 2018. The funding…

Recently, we covered how commercial vinyl records are made by a processing plant. However, what if you could make your own records from the comfort of home? Eager to go vintage vinyl and migrate more music from digital to analog, Seth Nicholas Johnson of Haunted Birthday Records shows an easy way to make homemade records:…

The idea of parallel 3D printing is incredibly powerful. The rap against 3D printers has long been that they are monumentally slower than traditional manufacturing equipment to produce finished units, even though they are able to make objects of any design on the next print job. This slowness has sometimes been the reason for not…

Back in the day, the best way to make an injury-induced wheelchair ride cooler was to either paint the chair or slaps stickers all over it (it’s a fact that hotrod flames make a wheelchair go faster). Nowadays, however, you have options, including one that’s able to take you just about anywhere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwXMJ6WiUOs The Ziesel…

If you happen to own stock in Nano Dimension, it’s definitely your lucky week, as the price quadrupled after a surprise announcement.  The company announced a breakthrough in its technology that will be of significant interest to the industry. Nano Dimension produces equipment to 3D print circuit boards. While circuit boards are essentially 2D structures,…

Remember those ridiculous abominations on wheels in the mid to late 2010s called “hoverboards”? Oh, what’s that? They’re still around? *Shakes head* So you remember they don’t actually hover? I know, it’s 2020. Where are our priorities? To poke fun (we think) at the wheeled monstrosities, YouTuber The Q creates a monstrosity of his own.…

There’s are a couple of reasons why computer keyboards are made from plastic and not wood. 1) Wood doesn’t lend itself to mass manufacturing like plastic does and 2) the amount of abuse and hand oils absorbed by the wooden keys would wear faster than the myth of George Washington’s wooden teeth. But that won’t…

Miele, the high-end German manufacturer of consumer goods, now offers downloadable 3D models for printing. The company produces a wide array of top-notch consumer products, including vacuums, stoves, refrigerators, washers and dryers, wine coolers, dishwashers, coffee makers, and much more. Last year their revenue exceeded €4B, making them one of the largest producers of appliances…

I don’t know what you think when you hear of small prints that can expand to 40x their size, but my first thought is JACKETS. Thousands of little jackets printed, stored, and expanded with heat when I need a new one. Just think, unlimited jackets. Of course, there are some other applications like, oh, let’s…

VELO3D announced the availability of a new alloy of aluminum for use in their Sapphire series of metal 3D printers. The California company has been quietly developing new materials for the Sapphire system, which recently gained a new, tall option. The stretch version of the Sapphire 3D printer sports a 1m tall build volume, and…

Stratasys has dropped a full-color 3D printed bombshell with the introduction of the new J55 3D Printer that combines a number of features in a printer that’s sized and priced for small and medium design and engineering business. The J55 is a full-color 3D printer with a rotating build platform, stationary head, odor-free operation, native…

Created by Alexey Pajitnov and released in 1984, the original Tetris video game was never meant to be analog. Featuring endless falling blocks that would dissolve once a solid horizontal line was formed, you can only imagine how difficult it would be to translate the game into a world where things don’t just disappear. So,…

In these tough times, people are scrambling to stay healthy and safe. Naturally, this means staying at home. But when necessity (i.e. the need for groceries) calls, there’s no other choice but to go out and brave the crowds in order to get what you need. But how can you get your supply of face…

I thought I’d heard all I needed to know about 3D printed corals some years ago, but I was wrong. Some years ago, D-Shape, a then-emerging construction 3D printer manufacturer, demonstrated a way to 3D print coral reefs using their concrete printing process. Essentially they developed a rough design for a coral-like concrete structure, then…

If you’re cooped up for the weekend with naught to do, here’s a simple experiment in electromagnetism you can make with your quarantine buddies/family using a couple of neodymium magnets, some copper wire, and a AA battery. While you’re at it, use it to teach the kiddos about the wonders of electromagnetism™. Let’s watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1MDOerruDU…

The biggest problem with glow-in-the-dark and other types of luminous paints are how they lose their luminescence over time. With exposure to sunlight and the inevitable passage of time, these paints eventually lose their ability to project colors in the dark, eventually turning it into just another streak of dull paint. Instead of giving the…

I’ve bumped into a very interesting technique that could save an enormous amount of support material and 3D printing time. Support structures are an inevitable aspect of 3D printing: some geometries are simply not capable of being printed without support for overhangs exceeding the threshold of your device. Typically this ranges from 45 to 60…

For those unfamiliar with the term, “hydro dipping” is a unique form of graphics application that allows you to apply a hydro film to a 3-dimensional object. The Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) film, floating on the surface of a water tank, wraps the object as it is dipped into the tank. Much like you would with…

Nerf Guns: half awesome fun, half picking up foam bullets. Fact of the matter is, the color schemes are about as menacing as a rainbow. With bright colors and a chunky frame, you Nerf-emies will see you comin’ a mile away. But what if you could paint your toy gun arsenal to make it strike…

Or maybe I should say, you’ll want to buy it. If it was just a $59 dollar 3D printer… maybe. Or if it just was a giant LEGO block… maybe. But a $59 dollar, LEGO compatible 3D printer… SOLD. And that’s what the 3DFORT printer is. “3DFort 3D Printer represents a whole new kind of…

I’m reading a paper from Texas A&M University researchers that discusses the notion of using in-situ materials for additive manufacturing of buildings.  When you learn more about this concept, I’m sure you’ll agree with me that it is a sweeping change in philosophy regarding construction in general, rather than simply a new material for construction…

One reason we like to feature the process behind the design is how it breaks down what may otherwise seem complicated. For maker Jimmy Diresta, the process is an artform in itself. His videos are a soothing, manufacturing-noise-only, time-lapse of a project from beginning to end. It’s no less the case in his build of…

Apart from fancy dance moves and uncanny wit, the ability to solve a Rubik’s Cube has established how eclectically cool a person is for… at least the past 40 years. But what if you knew your cube so well, you could make it solve ITSELF. Japanese designer Takashi Kaburagi of Human Controller has spent the…

I’ve received a detailed update from Photocentric regarding a spectacular improvement in their COVID-19 production rate.  If you recall, last week I reported on the Photocentric’s efforts to mass-produce a disposable ventilator valve. This component is, in some areas, in short supply and thus there could be interest in being able to produce them quickly. …

There’s nothing worse than going to an Asian restaurant with no idea how to use chopsticks. For shame. Sure, you could do the sensible thing and ask for a spoon and fork, but something in the back of your head says, “That’s just bad manners!” YouTuber The Q is back at it again, this time…

If you’re a fan of The Simpsons, you may have heard of a little show called Futurama. Made by Matt Groening, the same creator of those yellow folks from Springfield, Futurama ran for 140 episodes and featured a cryogenically preserved human being who wakes up 1,000 years in the future. One of the things he…

During the crisis, many are anxious to “do something” to help, and 3D print experts are stepping up to do their part.  Many groups and companies have organized COVID-19 projects to help hospitals, redirect their resources to manufacturing essential goods, and other ventures. But on an individual basis, it can be more challenging to figure…

Ultimaker has released a new version of Ultimaker Cura 4.5, and as usual there are a couple of very interesting new features. Ultimaker Cura, formerly known simply as Cura, is perhaps the most popular 3D print slicing system. There’s a good reason for that statistic, and it’s because Ultimaker chose to release it as an…

Everything looks cute when it’s miniaturized. But when it’s made out of LEGOs is jsut LOOKS PLAIN AWESOME. YouTube creator The Brick Wall specializes in making LEGO Technic builds, and his newest set demonstrates the magic that is a fully functional firewood factory – complete with a delivery truck and log splitter. How is wood…

It may not be as common in our uber-CGI world of today, but back when digital effects weren’t so realistic, using animatronics and puppetry was the best way to get a fictional or non-fictional beast into your movie without having to train it. The velociraptors in Jurassic Park, Gremlins, Yoda from Star Wars – these…

Matt Boyle is the VP of Engineering at Shapeways and, in a recent post from him on StackOverflow, reveals some of the methods the company uses to provide high-speed, global 3D print services.  Shapeways History Shapeways has been one of the longest-running 3D print services available to the public. They launched in the Netherlands long…

YouTube creator Kiwami Japan is famous for making hand-made knives using materials that odd, rare, and not exactly sharp to begin with. He’s made knives out of Amazon boxes, aluminum foil, and even family-friendly gelatin. In another one of his fascinating videos, he makes a knife from a single piece of solid wood. And not…

If you still have some of those old beer kegs from your college days, then you must really have a penchant for nostalgia. “Those things will come in handy someday.” Oh, I know, and I’ve got the PERFECT project. Apart from smelling like decades-old beer, those things are heavy, take up a lot of space,…

It’s highly likely that no fewer than 57 birds are watching, spying, and scheming against you at any moment of the day. All those conspiracies about avian cabal plots are between 0.5 and 1.2% true, so it only makes sense that we turn the tables and use our superior technology to divert any impending economic…

Despite being cheaper than the Xbox One or PlayStation 4, the place where the Nintendo Switch really gets your money is in the peripherals. Extra controllers, charging docks, and yes, even cartridge containers are sold separately from the base console and total just as much (if not more) than the Switch itself. We’ve covered our…

To be a good – nay, GREAT – artist or designer, you need to see the beauty in everything – a sunset, a yapping dog, a wad of lint. Some people make deceptive paper sculptures. Others make wallets out of rocks. But no matter what they use, you can bet the end result is something…

Essentium announced a pair of new materials for its high-speed 3D printer.  The Texas-based 3D printer manufacturer’s claim to fame is its highly engineered HSE series of 3D printers that can operate at 3D print speeds unseen in most other FFF devices. They are able to do so due to the precise engineering of the…

You might not recall the man’s name, but you’ve surely seen his work somewhere online. Felix Semper, a self-taught Cuban-American artist whose claim to fame is sculpture, doesn’t sculpt wood or stone; he sculpts paper. In a recent interview with WPBT2, he provided some insight into the process behind the paper sculpting that took him…